Obama may have to act alone against Syria as NATO allies opt out of possible intervention

With more and more Western nations opting against military action in Syria, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama might be on its own if it wants to intervene in that country’s civil war.

On Thursday, British Prime Minister David Cameron failed to convince the House of Commons to support a motion in favour of possible strikes. The motion did not even call for imminent military action but rather proposed a possible intervention to protect civilians in Syria.

Nevertheless, U.K. lawmakers with fresh memories of the Iraq War voted 285 to 272 against any role in the civil war that has raged for over two years. There is new urgency to resolve the violence in that country following a chemical weapons attack Aug. 21, which the U.S. says was perpetrated by the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Other NATO nations that ruled out intervention for now include Germany, Poland and Canada, where on Thursday Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters that “at the present time, the government of Canada has no plans, we have no plans of our own to have a Canadian military mission.”

United Nations weapons inspectors in Syria had been expected to issue a report in a week’s time on whether the regime deployed chemical weapons against rebel forces, but they have been recalled early due to the possibility of an imminent attack by the U.S.